


C(h)at(ter)

by AnxietyAvocado



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: 5 Times, 5+1 Things, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Implied Relationships, Innuendo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25575649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnxietyAvocado/pseuds/AnxietyAvocado
Summary: Five times Kyo ignored the cats talking to him, and one time he didn't.
Relationships: Honda Tohru/Sohma Kyou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91





	C(h)at(ter)

Anyone watching saw a little boy laying in the grass on his stomach while reading a book, pointedly ignoring the cat that was meowing at him incessantly. The boy didn’t talk to the cat, or pet it, or scratch behind it’s ears. They might have noticed that the boy looked irritated, but who could be irritated when laying in the grass reading on such a lovely day? 

Kyo Sohma could - especially when the cat  _ wouldn’t stop talking to him _ . 

“You could just go outside, you know, instead of complaining to your mother about it,” the feline was saying. “Not that it’s actually that great outside. There’s never enough fish, and there’s all these…  _ dogs _ . They’re loud and they’re so territorial, it’s disgusting. Why do they have to make everything smell like them?”

_ Shut up, shut up, shut up _ , Kyo thought as loudly as he could. He tried so hard not to talk to the cat - after all, it would only make his father angry and his mother sad. Kyo hated when this kind of thing happened. It was just another reminder that he was the Cat, and a monster, a freak, someone not normal. Kagura never talked about animals talking to her, so it had to be just him right? 

The cat’s whiskers flicked in annoyance. “Why are you ignoring me?” she asked. “I don’t have to talk to you, you know. I could just leave now and leave you here all by yourself.”

_ So leave then, _ Kyo said tersely, trying to focus on the book he was supposed to be reading. His parents were still home, after all, and he didn’t want to be seen talking to the animal.  _ Leave before they can get upset about it. Leave like everyone does. _

“Fine, stay in here,” the cat harrumphed. Turning around with a swish of her tail, she bounded across the yard and jumped over the fence. 

Once the cat was safely out of range, Kyo relaxed and let his head rest on the open book. “Not like I have a choice,” he mumbled. 

\---

_ There’s Sohma by himself again. That dude is so weird. How come he doesn’t eat lunch with the rest of us? Asshole probably thinks he’s too good for us, you know? Those Sohmas are always so stuck up. Just because they’re some old family with money doesn’t mean they can’t chill with us peasants.  _

The whispers followed him everywhere. Middle schoolers were rough, but a school full of middle school boys was a level of hell that everyone forgot to write about - especially if you were an outcast like Kyo. 

But… it wasn’t just Kyo. It was every Sohma who went to school there, and there had been a fair number of them over the years. They all tended to keep to themselves, never making friends with the boys they went to school with; they avoided invitations to their houses, or to hang out at the arcade after and flirt with girls, or join sports leagues or clubs. Kyo was just the latest in a line of anti-social weirdos in their eyes. 

Sitting on the lawn as far away from his classmates as he could manage, Kyo was  _ trying  _ to enjoy his lunch, but the kittens in a nearby bush were making that hard to do. 

The kitten purred and let out a half-formed meow. “That smells so  _ goooood _ . I haven’t had anything to eat all day. Can’t you share just a little bit?”

Why did he have to bring chicken and rice, today - or ever? Kunimitsu was always going on about how being a vegetarian was good for people. He may not have meant people’s mental health, since cats didn’t talk to anyone but him, but it certainly would have helped if he had one less reason for cats to bug him… Especially at school. 

Kyo didn’t mind cats trying to talk to him as he walked by - they were easy enough to avoid. The cats that showed up at the dojo weren’t that bad either. Sometimes they wanted to talk to him, but more often than not they were distracted by Kagura and her incessant need to feed and cuddle them, as if she could feed and cuddle Kyo by extension. She always looked at him like  _ See? This could be you, if you let it _ , as if that would actually convince him. If anything, it made him want to run away faster. 

Kittens bothered him. Especially when they found him at school. The kittens always tugged at his heartstrings. They were so small and helpless, and even if they weren’t abandoned they were always looking for someone to take care of them, looking for affection wherever they could get it. When they were drawn to him and could sniff out his lunch, he always felt obligated to share with them, making sure they got a little something to eat - but at school? 

It had been hammered into Kyo that he couldn’t draw attention to himself. From the very beginning, he knew that he couldn’t let anything unusual happen. When his mother, and then his father, and then Kazuma (and occasionally Hatori or Akito) would say that, they probably meant not losing his beads, but Kyo took their words to heart and did whatever he could to stay out of the way. 

That included ignoring the kitten currently begging for some of his lunch. Kyo ate slowly, picking at his food and saving his chicken and rice for last, willing time to go faster so that he could get back inside where it was safer. 

When the bell finally rang, Kyo packed up his lunch and stood up. Before he went back inside, he stole a glance to make sure no one was looking, and quickly tossed some uneaten chicken pieces toward the bush. 

He wasn’t heartless. 

\---

Cats found him anyway, but they found him faster when he was emotional. And oh boy, he was emotional tonight. That… that… that  _ girl _ was going to live with them now? Was Shigure crazy? (That was a rhetorical question. Shigure wrote  _ romance stories _ for crying out loud, he had to be insane) Not to mention, that damn rat not only agreed to it, but put her in a room right across from Kyo. This had to be some kind of plan to torture him into leaving Shigure’s house. 

Once he had gone back to normal and grabbed his clothes, Kyo stormed out of the house, pulling his pants on as he tripped his way down the stairs and out the front door. 

_ This is bullshit  _ was the only coherent thought running through his head. The rest of him was a storm of emotions, hate and anger and confusion swirling together into a tornado that nearly took his breath away with its force. 

Hours after walking out, he had circled the property so many times he lost track before settling into his usual spot on the roof, ready to avoid the house for the next week, or month, or even year if it meant not being around a girl. Especially  _ that _ girl. 

It wasn’t long before a cat found him. The ones that roamed this piece of Sohma land usually avoided him when he stormed around like he did, but once he sat on the roof it was all fair game as far as they were concerned. Today, it was a particularly round black cat that found him as he lay there looking at the stars. 

“You were rude.”

Kyo snorted - the only acknowledgment he would give the animal. No shit, he had been rude. It seemed like that was his default with anyone but Kazuma. 

“Did you know that girl lost everything just the other day?” the cat asked, licking his paw nonchalantly. “Landslide covered her tent, and it looks like she had been living there alone. And then you barge into  _ her  _ room and ruin the roof. You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

The last thing Kyo needed was to be scolded by a  _ cat _ . Fixing his eyes on the stars, he ignored the unwelcome guest. He would surely get an earful from Yuki when the rat managed to scurry up here, and no doubt Kunimitsu would give him a dressing down in Kazuma’s place. 

He certainly didn’t need to be tossed into a guilt trip by this flea bucket. And if he started fixing the roof the next morning, it certainly wasn’t because the cat made him  _ feel bad _ , why would you think that?

\---

“Those girls were all talking about your father, you know.”

The disembodied voice floated down to him from somewhere above his left ear. Kyo wanted to snap  _ He’s not my father! _ but left it alone. This was a public sidewalk after all, and he didn’t need to add to the list of why people thought he was weird. Talking to trees would just be too much to bear if that little bit of information followed him around. Not to mention… Kazuma really was his father in all the ways that counted. Kyo didn’t feel like he had earned the right to call him that, and snapping about it wouldn’t do any good. The urge to snap was still there, to lash out from embarrassment, old habits dying hard and all that. 

But it wasn’t a tree after all - just a small brown cat with white sock-like markings, who jumped down from the tree branch to walk along the fence beside him. Kyo did his best to avoid looking at the cat, because he knew the more he looked, the more the cat would talk. Once one of them was acknowledged, they never shut up. 

Mostly, they didn’t shut up anyway. 

“You should have  _ heard _ the things they were saying. Those girls are too young to be looking at him like that! It was absolutely disrespectful, but did they listen to me? Of course not, they just kept going on about how attractive he is, and what they would want him to do with hi-”

Kyo never quite found out what those girls wanted Kazuma to do with whatever appendage or body part of his, because he had finally had enough and started running. He didn’t care if people were looking at him oddly for sprinting down a sidewalk in high school uniform, his bag bouncing against his back painfully - he just had to get away from that cat. 

\---

The great thing about walking to school was that cat’s normally left him alone. They were usually more active around sunrise and sunset, and it made sense for them to bother him on the way home since it was so late in the day instead of when the sun was already beating down on them like this late summer morning. 

Because Yuki was already at school on student council business, Kyo was walking alone with Tohru before Haru and Momiji met up with them partway to their destination. Their walk was pleasantly quiet, neither of them really talking much in the humid heat that seemed insistent on flattening them onto the sidewalk with its weight.

Walking along, Kyo kept glancing at Tohru out of the corner of his eye. He kept telling himself it was because he didn’t want her losing her balance and falling over, and what if she fell into traffic? But then he realized that he was walking on the side of the walking path with the traffic, and that if she tripped into traffic either he wouldn’t be walking there or she would trip over him, and then he would end up transforming and-

That was too much of a mental spiral first thing in the morning. Kyo blinked a few times before focusing on the path in front of him. If Tohru tripped or slipped or stumbled and he wasn’t paying enough attention to catch her he would never forgive himself. 

They were about to cross the street when Tohru slipped on the edge of the curb and Kyo grabbed for her arm in a panic. He didn’t let go even though they kept walking, and since Tohru didn’t seem to notice, he didn’t say anything. 

Of course, that didn’t stop anyone else from saying something. 

The cat was walking between their feet and asked “Why can’t you just hold her hand like a normal guy?” 

Tohru, in her oblivious state, didn’t notice the cat. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if she had - she was used to the weird things that came with the Zodiac even if they didn’t talk about it much anymore. Come to think of it, had anyone even told her that they could all talk to their animals? Kyo certainly hadn’t, so he didn’t want to alarm her. 

Looking down at the cat with a frown, he tried to use his eyes to say  _ Get out of here, damnit _ without moving his head too much or mouthing any words. 

The cat continued on, unperturbed. “Humans are so weird, you know that? Most people hold hands, and you can’t even do that. I say you all just groom each other and sniff around and get it over with. Stop being such prudes about everything and enjoy life!”

Kyo nearly choked on his ragged intake of breath, and started walking faster, pulling Tohru along with him. 

  
  


\---

There was something about cats in Kyoto. They were bolder than the ones back home, and more of them flocked to him here. After that first white one (what was with that possessiveness anyway?) they just didn’t leave him alone. At least here they showed up one at a time, seemingly waiting their turn, instead of mobbing him like that one day at school. Kyo avoided every single one of them, refusing to talk to them, especially when his classmates were around. 

But now it was the end of the day, most of his classmates had wandered around during their free hour to pick up souvenirs and eat dinner. Kyo was sitting on a bench away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds, unwilling to risk a mass memory-casualty incident with his transformation. 

From where he sat, he had a clear view of Tohru, Uotani, and Hanajima as they went from shop to shop, and he leaned back on the bench, hands resting comfortably in his pockets away from the chill of the evening. 

An old tomcat crept up beside Kyo and perched on the sidewalk near the bench. 

“You keep watching that girl,” he observed. “Is she your sister?”

Kyo choked and spluttered before he could answer. “No! What makes you think that? We don’t even look related.”

The cat shrugged - or would have, if it could. It just had that kind of attitude. “You humans don’t look all that different from each other. But if she isn’t from the same litter as you, then why are you watching her so much?”

Was he really going to have a conversation about this  _ now? And with a cat? _

“She’s special, that’s all,” he said offhandedly. 

“So she’s your mate.”

_ I wish- WAIT. That’s gross. Stupid pervert, don’t think about Tohru like that. She’s too good for you. Too precious. You don’t mean that, dumbass.  _

The cat stared up at him, waiting for an answer of some kind. Kyo knew he could walk away, ignore the cat like he had done all his life so far, but sometimes it was just nice to have someone to talk to. It had been so long since he could just  _ talk  _ with someone without having to think about everything he was going to say three times over. 

“Not really,” he said finally. “But she’s special.”

“So then why aren’t you over there with her?”  _ Good question.  _

“She’s better off over there without me,” Kyo said awkwardly. “It’s just better if I stay over here okay? You don’t understand.”

Minutes passed without an answer from the cat, and all during that time Kyo kept his eyes trained on Tohru, drinking in the sight of her laughing and smiling with her friends. She didn’t get enough time with them, he decided. She spent so much time on homework and work and taking care of Shigure’s house… If he could, he would do something about it. 

When he looked for the cat again, he saw it was gone. It was just as well, he supposed, since sitting here talking to the cat any longer probably would have drawn people’s attention. He couldn’t have that… He had to stay out of the way, out of the spotlight. Some habits never died, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm akitoes on tumblr if you wanna chill


End file.
